Hello everyone! As summer slowly fades away, many school districts are beginning the process of welcoming back students after the summer break…and with back to school often comes a back to school shopping list. This summer passed by way too fast, it feels like it just started! So for this week’s post we wanted to focus a little bit on vocabulary for back to school shopping, although most of these words are useful for any kind of shopping. Here we’ve listed some Spanish words that might come in handy during a back to school shopping trip. There are many, many more, so if you have some we don’t have here we’d love to add them. And if you’re looking for back to school teacher’s gifts we highly recommend one of our mugs, they’re perfect for a coffee or tea loving teacher. Here’s to hoping that wherever you are, that you are enjoying your week. And if you’re beginning a new school year within the next few days or weeks, we wish you a happy and productive year! Until next time!

Hello everyone, and happy Monday! We hope that you all enjoyed the weekend and were able to get some rest and relaxation. As for us, we’re preparing soon for a fun trip that we’ve been looking forward to for a while. We’re going to Latvia! Latvia is a Baltic country located in Northern Europe. It has a rich culture and history, and a lot of interesting places to visit, including its capital, Riga, where we will be spending a good deal of our trip. The official language of Latvia is Latvian, which is a totally new language for us! So in order to get ready for the trip, we thought we’d compile a list of some useful travel words and phrases in Latvian that might come in handy. Here’s what we’ve found so far:

That’s all for now! We’re total newbies, so if you have any experience with Latvian, please add to our list! Here’s to hoping that wherever you are, that you are having a good beginning to your week. Until next time!

Hello everyone! We hope that you’re all doing well and are enjoying the weekend! This week we thought we’d focus our blog post on another fun summer activity, going to the zoo! Here in Hamburg there is a beautiful zoo, the Hagenbeck Tierpark, and we enjoy going when the weather is nice. The zoo is a great place to learn about the different animals, and for this visit we thought we’d review some Spanish language vocabulary at the same time. We made a list of some of our favorite animals and their names in Spanish, and we had a lot of fun coming up with our list! Here’s what we have so far:

What are your favorite animals to visit at the zoo? What places do you like to visit in the summer? Can you add to our list? We hope that wherever you are, that you are enjoying your weekend! Until next week!

For today’s post we thought we’d review some German vocabulary words for one of our favorite summertime activities–going to the park! Here in Germany there are many beautiful parks, you can check out some really stunning German national parks here! Our local parks are quite a bit smaller than these, but there are still a lot of opportunities to learn and practice new words. Here are some of the words we’re working on learning!

That’s what we have so far! What do you think are some useful words for a trip to the park? Can you add to our list? We hope that wherever you are, that you are enjoying your weekend with one of your favorite activities. Until next week!

What’s the weather like where you are? Here in Germany it’s been fairly mild, not too hot or too cold. We’re enjoying the temperate weather! But it’s still summer, and in our house that means we’ve been getting outside to play a lot more often. For us a great to go summer snack is a piece of fruit! We’ve been stocking up at the local markets lately on lots of delicious fresh fruit, and the warmer weather makes it taste even better. Sometimes we like to freeze fruits and then blend them into yogurts or smoothies. Really good! So for this week’s post we wanted to review some vocabulary words for different fruits in Spanish. So here’s our list!

We know there are a lot more, but these are some of our favorites. What are some of your favorite fruits? What are some of your favorite summertime snacks? Here’s to hoping that wherever you are, that you are ready to enjoy the weekend with your own favorite snack. Until next week!

In our house like in many houses around the world, we’ve been watching a lot of soccer lately! We’re frequently reminded by many of our friends here in Germany however, that there are a lot of different ways to refer to the game that we call soccer 🙂 So for today’s post, we thought we’d round up the word “soccer” in a few different languages. There are a lot! Some of these surprised us, for example we had no idea that soccer in Italian is “calcio.” Very interesting! Did any of these surprise you? Do you enjoy watching soccer/football/fútbol? Or playing it? I think no matter what we call the game, it’s a great pastime that helps bring lots of different people from around the world together. That’s something to cheer about! Until next week!

Hello everyone, and happy Friday! In a couple of weeks we’re going to be traveling to the North Sea here in Germany. The North Sea is located in northern Europe, and from what we can see from the pictures, it’s a really beautiful place! You can check out more about tourism at the North Sea here. We’re really excited about our trip, we’ve never been before and think it’s going to be a lot of fun. To get ready we’re trying to learn some German language beach vocabulary words, and we’ve made a list of some we think might come in handy! Here’s what we have so far:

We hope at least a few of these will be useful, but even if we don’t get to try them all out, at least they were fun to learn! Traveling in a foreign country is a great experience, but it can be challenging. What are some of the ways you prepare yourself when traveling somewhere that speaks a language that isn’t your native language? Do you like to learn specific vocabulary words ahead of time, or just wing it? Here’s to wishing you great travels and lots of nice weather to enjoy this weekend, no matter where in the world you happen to be at the moment. Until next week!

There isn’t too much else to say besides, Happy Father’s Day! If you’ve been a father in someone’s life, then this is your holiday! We wish you a great, and hopefully relaxing day with your friends and loved ones. So Happy Father’s Day to all of the supportive, awesome fathers in our lives who work hard to be the best they can be in their lives, and push us to be the best we can be in ours. We’re grateful! Feliz Día del Padre, everyone. Until next week!

Hello everyone! From us here at Winter in Olympus, we want to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day! There are lots of ways to say “Mother,” in many languages, but in the end, the meaning is the same! We love our moms! If you’re a mother to someone in your life,we want to wish you a wonderful day filled with your favorite things to do and with the people you love most. It’s hard work, and this is your day, Mamá! Until next week!

Hello everyone! We hope that you’ve all had a great week, and that you’re looking forward to the weekend! Sometimes it’s a struggle to agree on a topic for our Friday flashcard, but today was an obvious choice for us! This week our cat got sick, and ended up at the vet 🙁 He’s doing much better now thankfully, but in honor of our sick little guy, today’s flashcard is “the cat.” In Spanish the word for cat is”el gato” for a male cat, and ” la gata” for a female cat. If you want to refer to a kitten, you can add the -ito/-ita ending, making it “el gatito,” male kitten, and “la gatita,” female kitten. You can read more about the Spanish word for cat here in the dictionary of the Real Academia Española, a great source for learning new vocabulary words. In the meantime, we hope that you all enjoy the weekend, and are getting a chance to do something fun and relaxing. Until next week!